By Chris Scott Barr

Are you tired of e-reader news yet? Well since I can’t hear anything other than the voice inside my head, I’m going to assume you’ve answered no. Well as a follow-up to my piece on the Nook the other day, I thought you might find it interesting to know what Amazon did actually think. While they’ve not responded with words, they have done a little trimming to both the selection and price of their Kindle.

Amazon has decided that they no longer need two versions of the regular-size Kindle, so they have dropped one. The International Kindle has had its price lowered to $259, while the US-only version was kicked to the curb. This brings it in line with the Nook, which I don’t regard as enough to help their cause. Yes, the Kindle has become something of a household name (in terms of e-readers), but if customers can get something with a touchscreen LCD (and other features) for the same price, they probably will.

[ Amazon ] VIA [ GearLog ]

By Chris Scott Barr

The last month has been a pretty big one for e-book readers. Some of the highlights include Sony’s touchscreen e-reader, another from Irex and the international version of the Kindle. Well another big name has decided to throw their hat into the ring, and it’s a damn-good looking hat.

Barnes & Noble announced that they will be launching their own reader, dubbed ‘Nook’. The first thing you’ll notice about the Nook is that it has a pair of screens (not unlike the Alex Dual Screen we saw on Monday) instead of just the traditional one. There’s not much to say about the top 16-color e-ink screen, but the bottom is a full-color 3.5 inch touchscreen LCD. This can be used to browse through your library, or as a virtual keyboard for input.

The second screen isn’t the only thing the Nook has on most popular e-readers. In addition to having 3G service (through AT&T) for downloading content, it will also feature Wi-Fi. Why this has been left out of readers like the Kindle, I still don’t understand. As for content, it will support PDF’s natively,  along with EPUB and various other eReader formats. They claim that you’ll have access to over a million ebooks.

Other notable features include 2GB of internal storage (expandable by 16GB via microSD), the ability to play MP3 audio (but no text-to-speech) and the ability to share books. That’s right, you can “loan” out an e-book to friends using compatible devices for up to 14 days at a time. How cool is that? The only requirement is that your friend needs to have a device that is running the Barns & Noble software.

The Nook is going to go on sale sometime in November for the price of $259. With all of these features, you have to wonder what’s going through Amazon’s mind right now.

[ Barns & Noble ]

I hope you’re not tired of eBook readers just yet, because something tells me the forecast for the next few months calls for a downpour of new models. But at least companies like Spring Design are keeping it interesting with their new Alex reader. It’s one of the first to include a 6-inch monochrome electronic paper display as well as a 3.5-inch full color LCD display just below it, combining the best of both worlds.

The device is powered by Google’s Android and allows full web browsing over WiFi or 3G, EVDO/CDMA and GSM mobile networks. An SD card slot ensures storage capacity is essentially infinite and a headphone jack as well as built-in speakers allows multimedia content to be enjoyed on the lower screen. And to prolong battery life, web content can be captured and cached from the LCD display and viewed on the EPD display instead. Pricing and availability weren’t announced, though the press release claims that “Spring Design is currently in discussion and enlisting major content partners and plans to release the Alex device for selected strategic partners by the end of this year.”

[ PR - Spring Design Announces Dual Screen E-book Reader, Hyperlinking Text with Multimedia ]

By Chris Scott Barr

eReaders are getting more common all the time. It seems like a new one is getting released every month or so. However, despite all of the ones on the market, the most well-known has to be the Amazon Kindle. Is it the best? Maybe not, but it’s no doubt what comes to mind when most people think of eBook readers. Well it seems that not only is a new Kindle is on the way, but they’ve decided to drop the price on the Kindle 2.

The Kindle 2 has now dropped in price by $40, bringing it to $259. I really think that the $199 price point is going to be the sweet spot. As for the newest member of the Kindle family, it really isn’t anything to write home about. It’s essentially the same Kindle 2 that we’ve grown to know and love, but with an international SIM card from AT&T. This will allow you to download books from over 100 countries and territories. This new international version will set you back $279 when it ships on October 19th.

[ Amazon ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Every time I see a new ebook reader, I think that they’re maybe two steps away from being ready for me to buy. I love the concept of being able to read books, comics or anything from just a little pad. If you’ve ever tried to read a book that contains the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, you’ll understand why I want an e-reader. Well the latest one from Irex is another step in the right direction.

The new Irex DR800SD e-reader has an 8.1-inch display, making it one of the larger readers on the market. Unlike the Kindle family, the screen takes up almost the entire face of the device, making it a much sleeker design. Since there are no buttons on the front, they’ve opted for a touch screen. Don’t get too excited here, unlike Sony’s latest reader it isn’t a capacitive screen. You’re still going to need a stylus to work it. They chose this route because the current capacitive screens actually make the text less readable due to the extra layer of glass that needs to be used.

Other notable features include free 3G service from Verizon for downloading e-books and periodicals, an SD card slot (2GB card is included) and a user-replaceable battery. As for document support, it currently works with Adobe PDF, EPUB, Newspaper Direct, Fictionwise, eReader and TXT. They’ve also partnered with Barnes & Noble and NewspaperDirect for content.

The biggest issue I have with the Irex is the price. $399 is still a lot of money to pay for a device that lets you read books. Sure, when you stack it up against the competition, the price seems rather reasonable for what you’re getting. I’m more suggesting that the prices for e-readers in general still need to come down before they really become mainstream. Look for it to hit stores at the end of October.

[ Irex ] VIA [ Crave ]

With a Canadian version of the Kindle still nowhere in sight, I’m now in my second year of trying to find an eBook reader I might be content with. And it looks like I might have yet another contender. A series of photos have been posted to the MobileRead Forums that are claimed to be the rumored iRiver eBook reader called the ‘Story’. It hasn’t officially been announced, but the 6-inch reader will supposedly include a full QWERTY keyboard, SD card slot, comic book viewer, support for PDF, epub, txt, doc files and other popular book formats and will supposedly go on sale as early as September 16th for around $300.

At launch, books and other content will be available to the Story thanks to an affiliation with Kyobo, the largest bookstore chain in Korea, but iRiver is also working on making content available from US, Russian, European and Australian booksellers, which probably means that September 16th launch date won’t include North America.

[ MobileRead Forums - iRiver's new e-book reader 'Story' ] VIA [ SlashGear ]

As new eBook readers continue to flood the market, it’s hard to weed out which ones actually have a shot at competing with Amazon’s Kindle or Sony’s reader. But the new 5-inch Pocket PRO from Astak certainly warrants my endorsement, at least on paper. With a 5-inch, 8-level grayscale screen and a price tag of just $199 it’s definitely being targeted towards the low-end market, but it also supports over 20 different open file formats, and more importantly appears to be extra PDF-friendly.

Poor PDF support has been my major complaint with the Kindle and Sony’s reader, particularly when it comes to dealing with documents larger than the screen’s native resolution. But the Pocket PRO includes PDF reflow making those oversized docs a little easier to read on its 5-inch screen. Other features include text-to-speech that CAN’T be remotely disabled from what I can tell, MP3 support, 512MB of onboard storage plus an SD card slot and an expected ship date of late August.

[ PR - Astak's 5-Inch Pocket PRO eBook Reader Collaborates With Adobe Systems and Makes Its Debut ] VIA [ i4U News ]

I’ve yet to convince my co-workers to make the switch to an eBook device, even though they’re all avid readers. One of the biggest stumbling blocks is the whole ‘paper book experience’ they feel they won’t have with a flat electronic device, like being able to turn physical pages, curling back the cover or even dog-earing the corners. But one excuse they can’t throw in my face anymore is the lack of that new (or used) book smell, thanks to the Smell of Books aerosol eBook enhancer.

It comes in 5 different scents including New Book Smell, Classic Musty, Crunchy Bacon Scent (for the breakfast reading experience) Eau, You Have Cats and Scent Of Sensibility. Just a quick blast of Classic Musty for example makes your Kindle smell like that copy of Moby Dick was dug out of the basement of an old used book store, and the sprays are compatible with a wide range of eBook formats and devices if you’re worried about your model not being supported.

[ New Book Smell In A Can ] VIA [ Neatorama ]

If black and white just seems too Gutenberg for your tastes, you’ll want to skip Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s eReaders for Fujitsu’s FLEPia eBook. Its biggest claim to fame is its ability to display “full color” images instead of just grayscale, with 64, 4,096 or 260,000 color modes. It’s impressive for sure, but you’ll want to keep in mind that running in the maximum color mode will result in page refreshes that take a whopping 8 seconds.

Other features include an 8-inch XGA or 768×1,024 dot touch screen display, Bluetooth, wi-fi, SD card slot and embedded stereo speakers. The FLEPia also runs Windows CE 5.0 which means you have access to additional software like a web browser, email client and even the ability to publish office-type documents right on the reader. At the moment the Japan Trend Shop currently has them available for pre-order for a buck under $1,400, but they won’t actually be in stock until May 29.

[ Japan Trend Shop - FLEPia E-Book reader from Fujitsu ]

By Evan Ackerman

I’m sure all of you, along with Oprah and Jeff Bezos, are reading this on your Kindle e-book reader right now. What? You’re not? Oh, let me guess… It’s because it’s too thick and the pages don’t turn fast enough and it doesn’t have enough memory. Well, today is your lucky day, because Amazon has released the Kindle 2, which is only a third of an inch thick, features 20% faster page turning, and has 2 gigs of memory… Enough for 1,500 books out of the 230,000+ book catalog.

The most interesting new feature of the Kindle 2 is probably the integrated text to speech engine, which will read back any text that the book will display. It’s a synthesized voice, and perhaps not something you’d want to listen to extensively, but it might be nice to have the news or something read to you every morning. Another new feature is WhisperSync, which wirelessly keeps your Kindle up to date. You can still download books over 3G (it takes about 60 seconds per book), the 800 x 600 e-ink screen now has 16 shades of gray, and the battery is good for 4 days straight of reading and downloading, or 2 weeks of reading.

The Kindle 2 launches February 24th, and will cost $349… This item ships for free with Super Saver shipping.

[ Amazon Kindle 2 ]